One important event will be a pilgrimage, unprecedented in size and representation, to the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp, on September 8. This will serve as a sign of reconciliation and peace and a symbol of a radical rejection of violence and war as a way of solving international conflicts.

The program will begin with an inaugural Mass tomorrow, presided by Cardinal Dziwisz at the Divine Mercy Shrine. In the afternoon, there will be an Inaugural Assembly in the Auditorium ‘Maximum’ of Krakow. On September 7, there will be 22 round-table discussions in various parts of the city, which will address various themes including: Do Not Forget Auschwitz; the Legacy of John Paul II; Latin America in a Globalized World; Religions and the Challenge of Materialism; Dialogue of Faith and Culture; Faiths in Asia: Building a World Without Violence; Africa, Land of Opportunity; Religions and Global Health of the World: the Rebirth of Africa; The Power of Prayer Over History; Faith and Science.” The final day, September 8, in the morning there will be a Silent March to the gas chambers of the concentration camp at Birkenau and a Memorial Ceremony at the International Monument to the Victims of Nazi-fascism. In the afternoon, following the prayer encounters at various sites, the various religious communities will meet for a Peace Procession that will make its way to Market Square, where the closing ceremony will be held.

In Poland, “Madonna” will mock the Blessed Mother of Jesus and then fall on her knees before the ‘Holocaust’ idol:

Madonna has upset some believers in devoutly Roman Catholic Poland by timing her Polish debut concert to coincide with the day when Christians mark the Virgin Mary’s ascension to heaven …

… As well as her Warsaw concert, the singer is also expected to pay a visit to the former Nazi death camp of Auschwitz in southern Poland where up to 1.5 million people, mostly Jews, perished during World War Two.

Madonna is a follower of the Kabbalah, a mystical strand of Judaism, though she is not Jewish and was raised as a Catholic.

Janusz Makuch is visibly moved when he talks about the opening show he is planning for next year’s Festival of Jewish Culture, to be held in Krakow. He fantasizes and gesticulates like a performer acting out a play, and his English is peppered with Yiddish and Hebrew words. He repeats the phrase “with God’s help” in a thick Polish accent and with a frequency typical of traditional Jewish Israelis.

For next year’s festival, he envisions two enormous stages: One in Jerusalem on a slope adjoining the Old City walls, and another in the central square in Kazimierz, Krakow’s old Jewish quarter. Giant screens will facilitate communication between both stages. The evening will open with the sounds of three cantors and a choir in Jerusalem singing to Krakow. Singers and cantors in Poland will respond.

“The entire evening will be a message to the world,” he says. “The whole world will be able to view the dialogue, the bridge that will open between Poland and Israel, between Jew and non-Jew. It’s a crazy concept, I know, but I will do it” …

“In my opinion, the seminars and lectures are the most important feature of the festival,” he says. “Imagine a week-long workshop in an ancient synagogue in which two Jewish women from Warsaw teach 50 Polish children and their Catholic, Polish mothers about Passover, Rosh Hashanah and even Shavuot. As far as I am concerned, that is the goal: To teach children to maintain an open approach to the world in general and the Jewish world in particular in the hope that they will become pluralistic citizens when they grow up” …

When Makuch speaks of “we,” the Jews, as opposed to “them,” the non-Jews, and employs the Hebrew word for soul, neshama, to express his real connection to Jewish culture, one might mistakenly assume that he is Jewish. But he comes from a Catholic family and is married to a Catholic who serves as the chief editor of a major publishing house in Poland …

Janusz Makuch is visibly moved when he talks about the opening show he is planning for next year’s Festival of Jewish Culture, to be held in Krakow. He fantasizes and gesticulates like a performer acting out a play, and his English is peppered with Yiddish and Hebrew words. He repeats the phrase “with God’s help” in a thick Polish accent and with a frequency typical of traditional Jewish Israelis.

For next year’s festival, he envisions two enormous stages: One in Jerusalem on a slope adjoining the Old City walls, and another in the central square in Kazimierz, Krakow’s old Jewish quarter. Giant screens will facilitate communication between both stages. The evening will open with the sounds of three cantors and a choir in Jerusalem singing to Krakow. Singers and cantors in Poland will respond.

“The entire evening will be a message to the world,” he says. “The whole world will be able to view the dialogue, the bridge that will open between Poland and Israel, between Jew and non-Jew. It’s a crazy concept, I know, but I will do it” …

“In my opinion, the seminars and lectures are the most important feature of the festival,” he says. “Imagine a week-long workshop in an ancient synagogue in which two Jewish women from Warsaw teach 50 Polish children and their Catholic, Polish mothers about Passover, Rosh Hashanah and even Shavuot. As far as I am concerned, that is the goal: To teach children to maintain an open approach to the world in general and the Jewish world in particular in the hope that they will become pluralistic citizens when they grow up” …

When Makuch speaks of “we,” the Jews, as opposed to “them,” the non-Jews, and employs the Hebrew word for soul, neshama, to express his real connection to Jewish culture, one might mistakenly assume that he is Jewish. But he comes from a Catholic family and is married to a Catholic who serves as the chief editor of a major publishing house in Poland …